Site Menu
Search Close Search
Search Close Search
Page Menu

“To know where cancer is going you have to understand where it has been”

Our laboratory is studying how tumors, and in particular prostate and pancreatic cancers, escape immune surveillance during disease progression, and trying to restore tumor suppressive pathways lost early during tumor inception for cancer immunotherapy. We use innovative mouse modeling approaches, combined with genome editing, screening, and sequencing modalities, to dissect and manipulate tumor suppressor pathways, to elucidate tumor-immune interactions, and to evaluate new drug combinations for treating aggressive solid tumors. We are particularly interested in studying a tumor suppressive pathway called cellular senescence, a physiological stress-response program leading to proliferative arrest and secretion of pleiotropic factors that modulate immune responses.

Ruscetti Lab News: Follow us on Twitter imagegvdbg.png

 

Ruscetti Lab News

Getting Results…
  • mRNA immunotherapy developed by UMass Chan scientists eliminates pancreatic tumors in mice

    mRNA immunotherapy developed by UMass Chan scientists eliminates pancreatic tumors in mice

    Novel mRNA treatment developed at UMass Chan Medical School eliminates pancreatic cancer tumors in 50 percent of treated mice.

    Read more
  • UMass Chan scientist Marcus Ruscetti receives 2026 Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize

    UMass Chan scientist Marcus Ruscetti receives 2026 Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize

    Marcus Ruscetti, PhD, received a $750,000 2026 Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize to advance his lab’s pancreatic cancer research.

    Read more
  • PhD candidate Katherine Murphy receives NIH grant for innovative prostate cancer research

    PhD candidate Katherine Murphy receives NIH grant for innovative prostate cancer research

    PhD candidate Katherine Murphy received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship for her pancreatic cancer research.

    Read more
  • UMass Chan researchers develop dual therapeutic that holds promise as pancreatic cancer treatment

    UMass Chan researchers develop dual therapeutic that holds promise as pancreatic cancer treatment

    UMass Chan Medical School scientists Marcus Ruscetti, PhD, and Prabhani Atukorale, PhD, have developed a new, dual immunotherapy approach that may potentially change the way clinicians treat pancreatic cancer.  

    Read more
  • PODCAST: Marcus Ruscetti shares his research journey in cancer biology

    PODCAST: Marcus Ruscetti shares his research journey in cancer biology

    Marcus Ruscetti, PhD, resisted following in his parents’ scientist footsteps but ended up in a career dedicated to cancer research in and out of the lab.

    Transcript

     

    Read more
  • Marcus Ruscetti receives American Cancer Society award for prostate cancer research

    Marcus Ruscetti receives American Cancer Society award for prostate cancer research

    The Research Scholar Grant will support Dr. Ruscetti’s research on senescent cells and their role in tumor progression and immune suppression in prostate cancer.

    Read more
Photo of the chancellor (Dr. David McManus), Dr. Ruscetti, and Dr. Jason Pitarresi
(L to R) Chancellor David McManus, Marcus Ruscetti, and Jason Pitarresi

We were happy to join the Pitarresi Lab in welcoming our new chancellor and sharing our pancreatic cancer research. Read more about the visit.

image5fu6.png imagemkre.png